After welcome party had long since come to an end.

The cool evening breeze drifted through the courtyard.

Desmond and Felix stood quietly beside one Royal Steam Carriage, both leaning their backs against its polished black body. One hand rested inside each of their pockets while one leg was casually bent, the sole of their boots pressing lightly against the carriage.

Neither of them spoke for a while.

Not far ahead...

Tristin and Gareth stood beside Gareth’s Royal Phantom Rolls, chatting with several nobles and Non-Nobles who had yet to leave. Every now and then, laughter rose from their group before fading into the night air.

A little farther away...

Basil and several others from their circle supervised attendants as they carefully loaded trays of expensive desserts and bottles of wine into the storage compartment of another Royal Steam Carriage.

Everything appeared peaceful.

Yet...

Desmond’s attention wasn’t on any of them.

"Felix."

He suddenly spoke.

His crimson eyes remained fixed on the palm of his right hand.

Felix slowly turned his head.

Seeing Desmond stare so quietly at his own hand was unusual.

"What is it?"

Desmond slowly opened and closed his fingers.

His expression looked thoughtful.

"I finally understand..."

His voice carried an unusual calmness.

"...what you and Gareth meant."

He slowly clenched his hand into a fist.

"When you both said that Ezra kid wasn’t someone to underestimate."

Felix remained silent for a few seconds.

Naturally...

His thoughts drifted back to the Final Trial of Steel.

Back to the battle between himself and Ezra.

"...I see."

A faint smile appeared on Felix’s face.

"So that’s why you acted the way you did."

Although his voice sounded calm...

There was still a trace of annoyance hidden beneath it.

Whenever Ezra crossed his mind...

Or whenever he accidentally caught sight of him around the academy...

Only one thing returned to Felix’s memory.

Those eyes.

Those dead black eyes.

They carried no excitement.

No anger.

No fear.

Looking into them had felt like standing alone before an endless abyss.

An abyss so dark that it swallowed every trace of light.

It reminded Felix of a lone winter rat wandering into the territory of a pack of Silverback Dire Wolves.

No matter how brave the rat might be...

It could never escape the feeling that death was already staring at it.

Felix unconsciously tightened his hand.

The leather glove creaked softly beneath the pressure.

A moment later...

He relaxed it again.

Because now...

He had noticed the expression on Desmond’s face.

He was...

Excited.

A smile slowly spread across his face.

Not an ordinary smile.

It was the smile of someone who had discovered a prey worthy of chasing.

"That boy’s eyes..." Desmond muttered quietly. "They had it."

He slowly looked toward Felix.

"They really had it."

A low laugh escaped him.

"They gave me chills."

He paused.

"No..."

He corrected himself.

"It wasn’t just chills. They made me look forward to the next fight."

His fingers slowly closed into a tight fist.

"You’ve got that look again."

Felix couldn’t help smiling.

"The face of a predator... that has finally found prey worth hunting."

Desmond simply laughed.

He didn’t deny it.

Knowing how frightening Desmond becomes whenever he truly enjoys a fight...

Felix quietly glanced toward the dark sky.

I wonder...

How far will those two actually push each other?

***

Back to the present...

Desmond’s crimson eyes glowed even brighter.

"You’re like me."

The instant those words left his mouth...

His grip suddenly tightened.

The veins on both of his arms bulged as raw strength exploded from his body.

Before Ezra could break free...

Desmond twisted his waist.

His shoulders rotated with explosive force as both hands dragged Ezra forward before violently throwing him over his back.

Whoosh!

Ezra’s body shot through the air.

Yet...

There wasn’t the slightest panic on his face.

His expression remained completely calm.

While airborne...

He adjusted his balance with a slight twist of his waist.

His boots touched the ground first.

Thud.

His knees bent naturally to absorb the impact before he slid backward several steps across the damp forest floor.

Throughout the entire motion...

His right hand never released the Colt 1911.

And his left hand still firmly gripped the dagger that had pierced Desmond’s hand moments earlier.

Dark red blood slowly dripped from the tip of its blade.

Pat...

Pat...

The droplets disappeared into the soil.

The moment Ezra’s boots settled...

His senses immediately caught something.

A fluctuation.

A burst of Cognis.

Without wasting even a heartbeat...

Desmond clapped both hands together.

Clap!

The crisp sound echoed through the trees.

Cognis surged through his veins before gathering rapidly between both palms.

Lines of crimson light spread outward.

An Alchemy Circle formed almost instantly.

Then...

Desmond slammed both palms onto the ground.

Boom!

The earth trembled beneath him.

Immediately...

Everything changed.

The blood dripping from the wound in Desmond’s left hand suddenly stopped falling.

Instead...

Every droplet reversed direction.

Even the blood staining Ezra’s dagger trembled before peeling away from the blade.

The droplets floating through the air...

The blood splashed onto nearby leaves...

Even the stains scattered across the ground...

Everything answered Desmond’s Alchemy.

Like countless crimson threads...

They rushed back toward him at astonishing speed.

The streams of blood gathered together.

Compressed.

Twisted.

Condensed into a single crimson sphere that floated above the ground.

"Show me what you’ve got..."

Desmond’s smile widened.

"EZRA!"

His shout echoed across the forest.

By the time Ezra lifted his head after sensing the Alchemy ignition...

The crimson sphere had already transformed.

Whoosh!

A razor-thin jet of blood shot toward his face.

It crossed the distance between them almost instantly.

Ezra reacted the moment danger entered his senses.

He lowered his body.

The crimson blade skimmed just inches above his head.

Swoosh!

Several strands of black hair fluttered into the air.

Ezra glanced behind him for only the briefest moment.

A massive tree standing several meters away had already been pierced clean through.

The hole was so smooth it looked as though it had been drilled by an invisible spear.

Without giving Ezra time to breathe...

Desmond swung one hand downward.

The blood jet immediately obeyed.

Its direction changed sharply as it descended toward Ezra’s body, intending to split him cleanly in half.

Ezra planted one hand against the ground, spinning his body.

His movement was clean and precise, that the descending blood jet sliced past his chest with barely enough space to separate flesh from death.

It resembled a stone passing through the spinning blades of a fan.

One mistake...

One moment too slow...

And he would have been cut apart.

Yet during that same rotation...

Ezra accomplished two actions at once.

His thumb pressed the magazine release on the Colt.

The empty magazine dropped.

His fingers smoothly inserted a fresh one.

Before he took the new magazine...

His other hand released the dagger.

The blade spun rapidly through the air toward Desmond’s face.

Desmond’s eyes narrowed.

He tilted his head ever so slightly.

The dagger flashed past his right ear, missing him by less than an inch before burying itself deep inside a tree trunk behind him.

Neither of them paused.

Neither intended to give the other even the smallest opening.

The instant Ezra landed firmly on both feet...

He slammed the magazine completely into the Colt.

Click.

Loaded.

At almost the same moment...

The blood jet curved once more, sweeping toward his legs.

Ezra kicked off the ground.

His body flipped forward in a smooth somersault.

The crimson blade passed harmlessly beneath him.

Before his boots even touched the ground again...

Ezra extended his arm.

The Colt pointed directly at Desmond.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Five precise shots exploded one after another, each fired while Ezra was still descending through the air, every bullet aimed with the clear intention of killing.

Desmond saw the five incoming bullets.

Instead of retreating...

He smiled.

Clap!

His hands struck together while his body continued spinning.

At that instant, Cognis surged through the Stars within his mind realm in a perfectly aligned sequence.

Beginning from his First Star...

The Cognis stored inside his perfectly constructed Novice Star flowed smoothly into his nearly completed Binder Star. The two Stars connected through glowing streams of Cognis, allowing the Cognis to circulate without the slightest interruption.

The moment it entered the Binder Star...

The Cognis spread through every vein in Desmond’s body.

It traveled alongside his blood like countless crimson threads before converging between his palms.

A second Blood Alchemy Circle rapidly unfolded.

Unlike the previous one...

Its patterns were denser.

Its crimson lines rotated continuously, producing a faint humming sound that caused the surrounding air to tremble.

Desmond’s eyes sharpened.

Without the slightest hesitation, he poured even more Cognis into the newly formed circle.

The Blood Alchemy ignited.

Immediately...

The blood that had splashed across the trees after piercing through them earlier began responding to his command.

The blood coating-broken bark...

The droplets scattered across shattered rocks...

Even the crimson stains soaking into the forest floor...

Everything detached itself at once.

Like countless streams answering their master, they gathered around Desmond.

This time...

They didn’t simply compress together.

As Desmond spun, every strand of blood rotated around him as well.

Layer after layer intertwined.

The streams folded into one another before rapidly forming a miniature crimson tornado that completely surrounded his body.

The violent rotation produced a sharp humming sound, shredding leaves that drifted too close.

The defensive vortex had barely finished forming...

Clank!

Clank!

Clank!

Clank!

Clank!

Ezra’s bullets slammed directly into the spinning blood.

Some rounds were deflected the instant they struck.

Others were sliced apart by the terrifying rotational force before fragments scattered across the forest.

Not a single bullet reached Desmond.

The next moment...

Clap!

Ezra heard another clap.

His eyes narrowed immediately.

Another Blood Alchemy.

Almost at the exact moment the sound reached him...

The crimson tornado suddenly compressed inward.

The spinning wall of blood shrank until it became a single razor-thin stream once again.

Then...

It shot straight toward Ezra.

The attack crossed the distance between them in the blink of an eye.

Ezra reacted instantly.

His feet exploded into motion.

Whoosh!

The blood jet swept past his shoulder.

Behind him...

Several towering trees were cleanly sliced in half.

The cuts were so smooth that the exposed wood reflected the sunlight filtering through the canopy.

The upper halves slowly tilted before crashing into the forest with deafening booms.

Rocks...

Bushes...

Even thick roots buried beneath the ground were severed wherever the blood jet passed.

The battlefield was rapidly being torn apart.

Yet Ezra never slowed.

His body flowed naturally between every attack.

Each step was measured.

Each movement wasted as little energy as possible.

The blood jet curved again, chasing him relentlessly.

Ezra suddenly sprinted toward one of the nearby trees.

His foot landed against the trunk.

Then another.

Using the tree as a pathway, he ran several steps upward.

The blood jet immediately changed direction and pursued him without losing speed.

Swoosh!

The entire tree split apart.

The upper half leaned away before beginning its slow collapse.

While still airborne...

Ezra calmly stepped onto the falling half of the tree as though it were solid ground.

The unstable surface barely lasted a heartbeat beneath his feet.

Yet that heartbeat was enough.

With one smooth motion...

He stored the Colt 1911 inside his space bag, then he kicked off the collapsing trunk.

His body shot downward.

Desmond’s eyes followed him closely.

Without delay, he redirected the blood jet once more.

The crimson blade rushed toward Ezra’s descending body.

Ezra twisted only halfway in midair.

The attack brushed past his chest by inches before continuing into the distance.

At the same time...

His hand had already disappeared inside his space bag.

When it emerged again...

A Harpoon Gun was already resting in his grip.

It was fully loaded.

Without hesitation...

Bang!

The harpoon burst forward.

Its heavy steel tip pierced deeply into the trunk of another massive tree.

A sharp metallic sound echoed as it embedded itself.

The thin steel wire connecting the harpoon to the launcher instantly stretched tight.

The rope trembled violently beneath the sudden tension.

Ezra used that force immediately.

Instead of falling...

He allowed the wire to pull his body downward in a sharp arc.

His speed suddenly increased.

The unexpected change in direction caused the blood jet to narrowly miss him once again.

The moment Ezra reached the ground...

He didn’t land upright.

Instead...

He tucked his shoulder inward and rolled across the forest floor like a trained soldier.

Leaves and dirt scattered around him.

During that single roll...

The Harpoon Gun disappeared into his space bag.

In its place...

The Springfield M1903A appeared.

By the time the roll ended...

Ezra was already kneeling.

One knee rested firmly against the ground.

The rifle stock pressed tightly against his shoulder.

His breathing remained steady.

He looked through the optic.

The crosshair immediately searched for Desmond.

"..."

Nothing.

Desmond had vanished.

Ezra’s expression didn’t change.

Almost instinctively...

He abandoned his position and stepped backward.

One.

Two.

Three steps.

The next instant...

Boom!

Desmond crashed down exactly where Ezra had been kneeling only moments earlier.

His fist slammed into the earth with tremendous force.

The ground burst apart.

Soil...

Broken stones...

Twigs...

Grass...

Everything within several meters exploded upward from the impact.

A shallow crater appeared beneath his fist.

Without waiting...

Ezra fired.

Bang!

The Springfield roared.

The sniper round shot straight toward Desmond’s face.

Its path was perfectly aimed.

A direct hit would have blown apart his skull.

Desmond tilted his head at the last possible moment.

The bullet screamed past his neck, missing by mere inches.

Almost simultaneously...

He stepped forward.

His explosive speed instantly closed the gap separating the two of them.

His right fist tightened.

Muscles swelled beneath his sleeve.

Cognis reinforced every part of his arm.

He threw a heavy punch toward Ezra.

Boom!

The fist slammed against the black steel body of the Springfield instead of Ezra’s face.

The impact forced Ezra backward.

His boots carved deep grooves into the forest floor as he absorbed the tremendous force.

Desmond’s smile widened.

Without hesitation...

His free hand reached for the rifle.

He intended to seize it completely.

Or so he thought.

Ezra’s eyes remained calm.

The instant Desmond grabbed hold...

Ezra twisted the Springfield in a swift half rotation.

The sudden movement shifted the weapon’s balance unexpectedly.

At the same time...

Ezra’s foot swept low.

His boot struck directly against Desmond’s supporting leg.

The combination of the twisting rifle and the sweeping kick disrupted Desmond’s center of gravity all at once.

For the first time...

Surprise appeared on Desmond’s face.

His smile twitched.

The world spun before his eyes as his body was thrown off balance.

Ezra didn’t miss the opening.

Using the momentum from his earlier movement...

He pivoted his hips.

His leg whipped through the air.

Boom!

The kick crashed directly into Desmond’s crossed forearms as he instinctively raised them to defend himself.

The impact echoed through the forest.

Enhanced by Cognis...

The strike launched Desmond backward.

He flew several meters before planting both hands against the ground.

Using the force of the impact itself...

He rolled through the motion before smoothly returning to his feet.

Almost at the same moment...

Ezra had already raised the Springfield once more.

The barrel pointed directly toward Desmond.

Seeing this...

Desmond clapped his hands again.

Clap!

Another Blood Alchemy Circle instantly ignited beneath him.

At the exact moment Ezra squeezed the trigger...

Bang!

Desmond slammed both palms onto the ground.

Crimson lightning spread outward in every direction like countless branching veins.

The glowing lines raced across the earth with incredible speed.

Desmond narrowly avoided the sniper round, the bullet missing his neck by only a few inches before disappearing deep into the forest.

At the same time...

The crimson lightning reached the Springfield.

Ezra’s eyes immediately narrowed.

A tiny blood droplet had somehow been left on the rifle during their close-range exchange.

Now...

That single droplet pulsed with a bright crimson glow.